Mass Effect: Aftermath
by Vashwhyssrs
Summary: Four years after the end of the cycle, Commander Shepard wakes from a coma to find the people of Earth rebuilding. But amidst it all, Garrus isn't there with her. With some help though, she'll find him. And with him, a dark secret.
1. Prologue

**This takes place after Mass Effect 3, Destroy ending. This story has a few original characters in it, but more ME characters will appear as the story goes on. **

**This prologue has only OC's in it, and I will introduce Commander S, the next chapter.**

**Please Review, I accept all kinds, the more helpful the better. I you like it, tell me. If you have advice, tell me. **

**I hope you enjoy. **

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It was 2186. Hours after a massive pulse of red energy surged across the galaxy, wiping out a vast majority of all technology. Earth was ground zero.

He stood on top of a pile of rubble in Berlin, Germany. He was looking at the massive corpse of the cuttlefish like monstrosity that used to be a Reaper. The Reaper was surrounded by corpses from both sides, men and women that he fought with lay about both among the living and the dead.

He thought it was over when the Reapers started falling over dead, but soon after the army of starships built from all of the races begun to fall out of the sky. The only reason that anyone survived the crash's was the shear size of the ships themselves. And now there were millions of people trapped on Earth, away from their home planets.

Minutes ago these leviathans of destruction were killing everyone and everything and now they're all dead, nothing but giant heaps of purplish-blue metal. They were supposed to be immortal, and yet here they lay dead. It made him wonder about himself. He had the power to do what they did, but he choose not to use it. The Reapers could have done such good, but instead choose to destroy. They reminded him of his twin brother.

His train of thought was derailed when his wife approached him. She had been fighting by his side this whole time, and had helped him destroy a couple of the Reapers before the energy pulse killed them all.

Her armor was covered with blood, like his, from both sides. Her face was covered in dirt, but that was normal for her. "She did it, didn't she?" She asked, moving some of her black hair out of her face..

"Yes, she did." He answered.

"Looks like our little girl really does take after you."

He looked down at the ground and laughed. "Well..." He said. "She does have your stubbornness." She playfully punched him on the arm, but to her playful is her full strength. "Ow!"

"So now what do we do?" She asked.

"The only thing we can do Toph." He started. "As far as we know, all technology with a mass effect core has been rendered useless. That will make rebuilding a little difficult, but I should be able to manage it. Fortunately our A.I. isn't based off it."

"Is our building even still standing?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm just glad the city we built it in wasn't nearly as populated as the bigger ones."

"What about Rem? She's not well. That explosion she caused was catastrophic..." She paused. "She's still on earth"

"She'll be fine. I'll look for her. I'll be surprised if she's even conscience." She went closer to him, and took his hand in her own, and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Then I guess I'll go back home and organize the rebuilding while your gone." She said.

"Well that should be easy for you and your total control over matter." He joked.

She laughed. "It's not that easy you know."

"Yeah, I know."

"Just find our daughter Vash. Bring her home."

"I will Toph, don't worry." He kissed her, and she kissed him back. "I'll go get her." He said pulling back from her. She nodded in agreement.

He left his wife and started towards London. His daughter had saved the entire galaxy, granted he saved the entire universe once but that was besides the point, and she deserved some rest at home...


	2. Reawaking

**And now I introduce Commander Shepard. Her first name is Rem. **

**I hope you enjoy, and don't be afraid to tell me what you think. **

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Darkness. All she saw was darkness. The last thing that she remembered was exploding, and when her eyes finally opened she found herself in total darkness. Then the Wolf showed up.

Rem Shepard found herself in total darkness with a pair of giant yellow eyes staring at down at her. In this dark place she stood in there was no sense of time, the Wolf had been talking to her since she had arrived. It was the only thing here, and it tormented her.

"**You may have destroyed the Reapers, but you've doomed your own kind in the process."** It spoke in it's monstrous .

"Shut up!" She yelled. She tried to cover her ears with her hands, but the Wolf's words tore through her like a knife.

"**Stop fighting what you already know. You've failed."**

It felt like weeks, or even years. The Wolf had been torturing her with it's words nonstop. It wasn't anything new though. The Wolf had been there since she was born. It was that voice at the back of her mind telling her that she wasn't good enough, that no matter what she did she would have already been to late. And now it was right there next to her, it's words more powerful then ever.

"**Their all dead because of you." **The Wolf said in it's booming voice. **"The Quarian, the Asari, the pilot, their all dead."**

"No, stop it!" She yelled at, clutching her ears even harder. She had been fighting it for what seemed like weeks, but it had gotten to the point where she was breaking down. And she was starting to cry.

"**And the Turian." **The Wolf continued. **"Garrus." **The massive yellow eyes moved closer to her. The beaming yellow eyes shining like a spot light over her. **"How does it feel to know that you killed the man you love."** She couldn't take anymore. Tears broke through her eyes as she stopped resisting. And the Wolf was enjoying it. It laughed.** "So you've finally excepted your failure. You're such a weak host."**

She was trapped here with this creature, in this dark place. She was in some kind of hell, and she wanted out. If she thought killing herself was possible she would do it, but that wouldn't work.

And just as she was just at her darkest, a light broke through the darkness and hit the Wolf. The light burned it, made it scream and made it back away from her. Before she knew what was happening, a hand came out from the light and it pulled her in. The darkness begun to fade.

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_Hey. _She heard. The darkness was replaced with a different kind of darkness, one that was much lighter. She suddenly felt herself in pain, it was small but there. It meant that she was alive. She found the darkness that she was now in was her own eye lids.

"He kid." She heard. She struggled to open her eyes, the light was bright, very bright. Her purple eyes opened slowly so the light wouldn't blind her. In the light she saw a blurry figure. "Come on girl wake up." The figure said in it's calm voice. It was only then that she heard the low hum of hospital equipment. The blurry figure begun to come into focus, she recognized his spiky brown hair and his crystal blue eyes. It was her father.

"Dad?" She questioned weakly. She tried to sit up but sharp pains prevented from doing so.

He gently pushed her back down. "Take easy." He said. "You haven't recovered from the trauma."

She found breathing to be difficult, talking more so. "What happened?"

Her father smiled his million dollar smile. "You did what you set out to do."

"The Reapers?"

"All dead. With a few consequences, but that can wait." He answered, pushing some of her black hair out of her face. "The explosion you caused knocked you into a coma. The doctors said you'd never wake up, but they've never met one of us." That was one of the reasons that she loved being in her family, the ability to defy the odds and survive. "You know how death doesn't agree with us."

For the next minute she was silent. She looked around the white hospital room, a large window replaced the wall in front of her bed. It showed a city filled with buildings, most were completed but there were still some under construction. "How long has it been?" She finally asked.

He hesitated. "About four years, not to bad if you think about it."

"Four years." She said more then asked.

"Like I said, it's worse then it sounds."

"You mentioned consequences. What kind?"

He hesitated again, she hated when he did that. "The destruction of every piece of technology that ran off a mass effect core."

"Everything?"

"Everything. That fleet you assembled started falling out of the sky, millions of those aliens are trapped here on Earth. But luckily most of them survived."

"What about the Normandy?" She asked, looking out of the window.

"Now that I don't know." He responded, much to her disappointment. "It went missing after the blast, like a lot of other ships. Witness' claim to have seen it trying to escape the shock-wave, but it moved to fast. There's no way to be sure exactly what happened." He paused. "Well you could always ask you mother, she has that whole 'cosmic awareness' thing."

Rem was silent for another few minutes. "Do you have anything to drink?" She finally asked. He presented her with a water bottle. "I was hoping for something stronger."

"Now Rem, this is a hospital. They're not going to allow alcoholic drinks in here." He said unscrewing the cap and placing it under her nose to smell it. It was actually a clear brandy that he brought in disguised as water. "Now drink up." He said smiling. She complied and drank the warm liquid...

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**Thank you for your time. Hope you enjoyed. **

**They'll be a couple more M.E. characters** **the next chapter. Thank you** .


	3. Reunion

**Okay part three, Time to put in a couple more Mass Effect characters.**

**As usual, review if you like to, I would appreciate it. Thank you.**

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It had been two days since she had awakened. Her body was still recovering from all the damage that she had attained four years ago. And now that she was conscience, her recovery would go by a lot faster. Which was good, because she hated hospital's.

Her father had given her a detailed journal log detailing the progress of the last four years. The different species seemed to be getting along, despite being trapped here on Earth. She was glad that her work brought them all together, but see was still upset that she kept them away from their home planets.

Her father owned one of the many company's that supplied the galaxy in many different area's, including weapons, armor's, starships, and luxury's. He had been pooling in all the resources he had at his disposal into Earth's reconstruction, and researching for a substitution to mass effect drives. He had said that he was close to a breakthrough, but it was slow going.

"So..." Her father had suddenly said after hours of silence. " The Normandy crew? Are you worried about them as whole, or one more then the others?"

She was taken aback for a second before answering him. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, since it's been awhile since I've seen you, I thought we should catch up." He answered. "Why not tell me about your friends? Or maybe some one whose more then your friend?"

"Dad, I don't talk about it." She said trying to avoid the topic.

"Oh come on." He said with his smile. "Do have boyfriend, a girlfriend, an Asari maybe?"

"Dad, come on." She pleaded.

"As long as it's not a Batarian. They're creepy with their four eyes and what not." Her father continued to pry.

"It's not a Batarian."

"So there is someone?" He concluded.

"Alright, his name is Garrus. And..."

"Commander." One of her nurse's said as she walked into the room cutting off her sentence. "You have visitors."

"Visitors?" She asked.

"Shepard!" Said a familiar voice. The Krogan, Urdnot Wrex, entered the room.

"Wrex?"

"Good to see you're finally awake." The Krogan leader said cheerfully. "I'm surprised that you're still in one piece after that explosion. Part of me is jealous that everything I've done never came close to that."

"Well Wrex, next time I have to make a giant explosion of machine killing energy, I'll let you pull the trigger." She joked.

"I'll hold you to it." She then heard a loud, _'Ahem', _coming from behind the Krogan. Wrex took a look over his shoulder. "Oh right, I brought the other human with me."

Wrex stepped aside showing Ashley Williams. "Ashley." The Commander said happily.

Ashley greeted her with a friendly hug. "Good to have you back Shepard." She pulled back letting the Commander rest. "We thought you were gone for good this time."

"You thought she was gone for good this time." Wrex put in as he went to the other side of her bed. "If the universe wanted her dead, she'd be dead already."

"Yeah, it takes more then universal laws to take me out, Ashley." Shepard joked.

"It's not funny. When that explosion went off, I thought we'd all die." Ashley said. "Then the Reapers started dying, and the ships started falling."

"You forgot the part where I saved your ass from being crushed from that falling Harvester." Wrex put in with a smile.

"I didn't forget." Ashley defended. "I just left that part out." Wrex and the Commander looked at each other and laughed.

Then Rem's father spoke for the first time since her friends had arrived. "Don't worry Ashley, we all need help from time to time." He stood from his chair. "Except for me because, let's face it, I'm awesome." He said only half joking.

Ashley turned around with a bit of surprise in her face. "Are you?" She looked back at the Commander. "Is he?" She looked back at him. "Your Vash Stampede!"

"Well I'm not his sister." He said. "She's in Russia."

"Your one of the richest, most powerful people in the galaxy."

"Oh, here we go." Rem complained.

"Not to mention the music albums, and movie vid's." Ashley continued.

"I take it your a fan." He said.

"Who isn't." Ashley said with excitement.

"Give it a rest Ashley." Shepard said.

The Lieutenant Commander turned back to her. "How do you know _the _Vash Stampede?"

"He's just..." She paused to think about it. She had been lying to people about her life for years now and she was tired of it. And now that the Reapers were gone, she decided to be honest. "He's my dad."

"Your dad?" Ashley asked confused, looking back and forth between the two. "I thought you were an orphan."

"No." Her father said. "She just said that, so she could live a different life." He crossed his arms. "And now, she's decide to come out with the truth."

"I'm tired dad." The Commander said. "I'm tired of the lies. Their my friends, and they deserve to know the truth."

"Hey." He said, putting up his hands defensively. "I'm not against it. I was just saying what was going on."

"Well then." Wrex said after an awkward silence. "I'm sure we've all had our secrets."

"Well despite that, I have some news." Her father said. "As I've shown you, and about half the world, my prototype for the replacement for mass effect is ready for testing."

Rem sat up as best she could. "You have a working prototype already? It's only been four years."

"Remember who you're talking to Remy. I had half that stuff working before we discovered the Mars relay. If you feel up to it, you and your friends here can come see the testing when it's ready."

"Well, first we'll have to see if I can walk." She said.

"If not, I'm sure mister Krogan clan leader here would be glad to carry you." He joked. And she laughed at the thought of Wrex carrying her.

And even Wrex started laughing at the thought. "I don't think I'm that strong." The Krogan said.

"Ha ha, Wrex." Shepard said sarcastically as they all joined in the laughter...

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**I hope you enjoyed. As usual, please review...PLEASE...** **There'll be more to come.**

**Thank you for your time.**


	4. New Energy

**A few thing that I forgot to mention about Commander S... She's a Solider, born on earth, and is a Renagon, which is a mixture of Paragon and Renegade, basically neutral. **

**Now enjoy... **

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"Easy now." Shepard's father said as he helped her into a wheelchair.

"Is the chair really necessary?" She complained as her father pushed her through the hospital halls.

"They said the same thing about my hair." He said. "So I told them to shut up and deal with it." She crossed her arms and pouted like she did when she was little. "And besides, you can barely stand."

"That's never stopped me before."

"Well you've never had me here to stop you before."

"But that's not fair, nobody can stop you."

"No one but your mother, every third week of the month." He then shivered at the thought, which made his daughter laugh.

She was silent for a couple of minutes, contemplating on weather or not she should ask the question that's been on her mind for the past few days. "What happened after I fired the Crucible?"

"Besides the total destruction of all mass effect technology, dozens of dreadnought's falling out of the sky, millions of people trapped on our planet, and four years of reconstruction..." He paused. "Nothing much really."

"No, what happened to me? The last thing that I remember is being blown up on the Citadel. Then I woke up in that hospital bed." She had decided to leave out the part about the darkness.

"The Citadel?" He asked with a hint of surprise in his voice. "You never left Earth. You were hit with a Reaper death beam that caused an explosion. You were out like a broken light, but you still somehow set the Crucible off. The Alliance couldn't find you for hours, and claimed you to be dead. Until I found you trapped under a building. Then I brought you to this hospital, which I bought, where you were diagnosed comatose." He paused. "And brain dead, but we know that wasn't true."

"I never left the Earth." She said in disbelief. "That doesn't make any sense."

"According to your mother, that's what happened." Then his tone turned sarcastic. "And it's not like she can see everything everywhere at anytime."

"Mom's all powerful, I get that. But I know that I made it to the Citadel."

"That, or everything after the Reaper beam was all in your mind." He paused. "I think something like that happened to me once." He looked up at ceiling, trying to remember something. Then he shook his head, and said. "Any way..." He presented her with a black recon hood. "Put this on."

"Why?" She asked taking the the mask.

"Your Commanded Shepard, do really think it's good idea for a bunch of people to see you alive, and coming out of a hospital. I had to pay everyone at this hospital to keep quiet." He answered. "That's a lot of people."

"Then how did Wrex and Ashley know I was here?"

"Soon after I found you, I tracked down what friends you had here on Earth and told them where they could find you. Ashley had visited a couple of times to check on you."

"And she's never seen you until yesterday?"

"When the few visitors you had came here, I was always in a different room, or just let them have their privacy."

"At least someone came to visit." She said pulling the recon hood over her head. "Where's mom?"

"Probably at home trying to read, or blowing somebody up with her mind." He said. It made her laugh, but the truth was that he was probably right.

He wheeled her out of the hospital where a heavily modified X3M skycar sat waiting for them. "Whoa." She said at the sight of the skycar. "What happened to that skycar?"

"Mass Effect fields don't work, remember. I've been real busy these past four years. I had to make a substitute."

"What are the flashing lights for?"

"Why wouldn't you put flashing lights on your car?" He asked rhetorically.

"To prevent seizures."

Her father was left silent for a few seconds. "Small price to pay, Rem. Small price to pay." Shepard laughed as he loaded her, very carefully, into the skycar. And they were off.

* * *

><p>Shepard's father had taken her to the Stampede Industries building. The enormous skyscraper was the center of the massive corporation that her father owned. She had started thinking about all of the time that she had spent here as child, playing with weapons and gadgets that her father had invented and produced.<p>

She was so deep in thought that she hadn't noticed that she was wheeled into the buildings weapons testing area. The W.T.A. was a massive starship hanger on the north side of the building, the walls were made of refined steel and concrete, and was coated in lead in the case of a radiation leak.

Her father had parked her chair behind the control station where Ashley, in her blue armor, was waiting. "Ashley, you made it." She exclaimed while pulling off the recon hood.

"I wouldn't miss it. But Wrex couldn't make it, he's busy."

"No, I get it. He 's the leader of the Krogan, he's busy." She looked over to her father was talking with a Salarian engineer.

When the Salarian walked off to do whatever it was he was suppose to do, her father went back to them and offered Rem his hand. "Up you go." She took his hand, and let him pull her to her feet. He kept her steady until she was able to stand herself. "You good?"

"Yeah, I think so." She said while trying to keep balanced. When he let go of her arm she started to fall, but Ashley caught her. "Thank you."

"Well, I do owe you a few favors." Ashley said, trying balancing her friend.

"Alright." Vash said turning to the holographic interface on the control station. "Jenna." He said.

The holographic image of his A.I. appeared in front of them. "Yes mister Stampede?"

"Bring up the Converter." Jenna nodded, then activated the machinery. The floor at the center of the hanger then began to split apart. A complex machine on platform rose out of the hole in the floor. The machine was a large metal ring covered in clear hard plastic tubes.

"That's it?" Shepard asked.

"What do you mean, _that's it_?" He asked.

"It looks really simple."

"Well it's not!" He yelled. "It's much more complex then it looks, and I don't feel like spending the next five hours explaining space travel, quantum theory, and physics."

"Well I did always hate school."

"That's right." He said turning back to his console. "Jenna, are the spectators here?"

"The observation deck is full." The A.I reported.

"Good, bring them up on the screen." Jenna complied and opened a screen on the control panel. The vid screen came to life, showing the people that were inside the observation room. The observation room was filled with several humans, mostly guards, and representatives of each of the species. "Ladies, gentlemen, and various guests of our little blue rock." Her father continued in his business man voice. "Four years ago I welcomed you and the rest of your kind's and promised to make a replacement for the loss of mass effect." He paused. "So I give you, the Converter." The vid feed of the aliens in the observation room miniaturized so that an image of the Converter could appear on screen.

The Turian military leader spoke though a set microphone inside the observation room. "As much as we'd like to believe you mister Stampede, the odds of finding and constructing a suitable replacement in such a small time slot sees next to impossible."

Shepard's father laughed. "They also said I couldn't defeat an entire worldwide crime syndicate by myself..." He paused. "They were right of course, but I did do most of the work. But I digress. Over a hundred years ago, I revolutionized human cybernetics, space travel, and made clowns a little less creepy. During the time of the Mars relay discovery, I had already drawn up the plans for a mass converter that would make long distance space travel possible. However the actual construction was difficult, but with the combined efforts of Turian, Salarian, and Quarian engineers, and myself of course, the replacement has been fully constructed and should be fully operational."

"Should?" The Asari military leader asked with concern.

"Should." He repeated. "And will." He turned to the A.I. "Jenna, activate the Converter, start at five percent power. We don't want to accidentally cause a nuclear meltdown." He paused before looking back at the investors. "That was joke." He said to reassure them that nothing bad would happen. But Rem knew when her father was lying.

"It won't really blow up on us, will it?" She whispered.

"There's always a chance that everything could explode at any time." He whispered back.

"Then I guess that I'm going back into a coma." She joked. Shepard looked at the Converter, the plastic tubes had begun to glow with a bright green energy. The large metal ring begun to divide into seven, which started to shift and rotate. The looping metal rings then begun to conjure the same green energy that ran through tubes.

"Jenna, increase to fifth-teen percent power, and activate stabilizers."

"Yes sir." The A.I. responded. Plates on the platform shifted and opened, seven steel arms reached out and caught one of the arms, stabilizing the energy field.

Vash flipped a switch on the holographic interface in front of him. "Increasing to twenty percent, and..." A swirling orb of green energy formed besides the converter. "There we go." He turned to the video feed. "This energy, which I have not named yet, can be transferred through a starships systems, simulating the mass effect, effect. But with twice the capacity. To prevent a long scientific explanation, I'll let Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams perform a test."

Shepard turned to Ashley. "You're going to test it?" She asked surprised.

"I volunteered." Ashley said, pulling her helmet over her head. She walked out from the control station.

"Alright Ashley." Stampede said. "You just have to walk into the anomaly."

"Right." Ashley said, slightly worried.

As Shepard watched her friend walk into the green vortex, she turned to her father to ask. "Is it safe?"

"If it wasn't, I would have sent some that didn't matter." He replied bluntly. Ashley walked fully into the green vortex, and disappeared in the energy. "Jenna, bring up Ashley's helmet-cam, and link to her comm-link." A first-person video feed appeared on the screen in the control booth, the vid showed the red-rocky surface of Mars. "Ashley, you still have all your molecules?"

"Yes." She replied. "At least I think. I'm on Mars."

"A complete test run." Shepard's father said, as a few of the alien investors clapped.

The Turian was one of the ones that remained quiet. "How long will it take to apply to starships?" He asked.

"Well." Vash started. "To make a Converter work on a starship, it would have to be twice the size. Mass production will take time, but we should have the first test models within the next year or so. I'll be sure to update you all on any progress that I make." He then set his hand on the console. "Stampede out." And he cut the video feed. "Jenna, severe everything, we're going dark."

"Yes sir." Jenna replied. "All communications has been cut."

Ashley had come back through the vortex. "Lieutenant, Rem." Shepard's father said with sudden seriousness, which always had worried Rem. "Girls, everything that I'm about to say and show you is completely illegal and violates several dozen inter-species peace treaties..." He paused with his thoughts as he often did. "Well Ashley's a Spectre, so see she can do anything she want's, pretty much. And technically Rem, you're dead again, so it doesn't really matter." He turned back to Jenna. "Bring it up." The A.I. nodded. The Converter powered down and sank down into the floor. With the Converter tucked away, the open floor continued to spread open until the entire hanger floor was a massive chasm. A huge platform begun to rise out from the floor, on it was a starship, an infiltrator class.

"Dad..." Rem said in shock. "Is that?"

"Not exactly." He threw his hand out to the ship. "Commander's, say hello to the Normandy SR-three."

Shepard was surprised, as was Ashley, to say the least. Here she was, standing before a third Normandy with her fathers Converter modifications. "I_ 'acquired'_ the Normandy design's, added few modifications and a Converter engine, and am now prepared to do it's shakedown run." He turned to look at the ship. "Say what you want about those scary raptor dudes, they know how to make a ship."

"Why is this illegal?" Ashley asked.

"Let's just say that I may have used some dead Reaper parts." He said casually.

"You what!" Both women yelled in unison.

"Relax. The Crucible destroyed the Reaper signal, the Indoctrination process died with it." He looked at them. "I'm insane, not stupid. It's perfectly safe."

"Where are we going?" Shepard asked no longer worried about the Reaper tech. If her father said it was safe, then it was safe.

"What?" Ashley asked in surprise. "You can't seriously be thinking about going in that thing. It's part Reaper."

"Ashley, you trust me don't you?" Shepard asked with her commander tone. Ashley nodded. "And you trusted my dad enough to send you into a portal to Mars that could have ripped you apart on a molecular scale. So you can trust that this ship is safe."

Ashley was silent for a long minute before she said. "Okay Shepard, I trust you." She turned to Vash. "And I trust you too, mister Stampede."

"Trust me as a fan, or a person?" He asked with an eyebrow raised. Ashley opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off before she could. "I'm just kidding." He held out his hands and smiled. "Everybody trust's this smile." Rem rolled his eyes as he laughed.

"So where are we going?" Ashley asked.

"An uncharted world in the Minos Wasteland."

"Well, it's good that we know where we're going." Ashley said, her words filled with sarcasm.

Shepard laughed, and said. "Just get me in the ship."

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**Thank you...Stay tuned for more...Please Review...Please...**


	5. Discovery

**Okay, here's a new one, sorry that it took so long...**

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It had been just over a week since Shepard had taken off in the SR3 Normandy. Had father had brought her and Ashley on board, and gave them a quick tour. This new ship was almost the same as the SR2, but with a few extra rooms. Her private quarters at the top of the ship was a little bigger, and the new bed was a lot softer, so soft that she had fallen asleep for two days straight.

Her father had introduced her to the crew, which consisted of only five other people, nine with Ashley, her father, Jenna and herself. There were two human guards, both were former Blue Suns mercenary's. A Salarian engineer, Shelben, lived down in the Engineering deck where he monitored the Normandy's Converter engine, which needed someone to constantly observe it to replace the containers that the Converter filled with the toxic bi-product that it produced.

There were also two friendly faces that she recognized. One was Major Coats, whom she fought beside during the battle of London. The other, to her surprise, was the Krogan, Grunt who practically treated her like his mother. Not that she minded that.

Her dad had almost immediately named her the ships captain, and Ashley to be her executive officer. Her dad was staying in the ships med-by, leaving the A.I. Jenna to pilot the ship.

Rem was currently in the shuttle bay, trying to get used to physical strain again. Since her father had taken her out of the hospital early, he made her do her physical therapy here on the ship. She was practicing standing on her finger tips, but she was struggling under her weight. She was deep in concentration, focusing on her balance, when Jenna's hologram appeared next to her. The A.I.'s sudden appearance has startled her, and caused her to lose her balance and fall.

"Commander." The A.I. greeted.

"Yes, Jenna?" She asked.

"Your father wish's to speak with in the med-bay."

She sighed as she stood. "Thank you Jenna." She wiped her head off with a towel, and made her way through the empty shuttle bay and stepped inside the elevator. She rode the elevator up to the crew deck, and when it stopped there, she walked to the med-bay.

"Sit down." Her father said the very second she stepped inside the med-bay. She did as she was told and sat on one of the medical bed's. He went to her with an Omni-tool scanner. "Just have to do a few test's."

"Sure." She said calmly.

"Any nightmares?" He asked. She shook her head. "Any muscle cramp's or spasms?"

"Aren't they the same thing?" She asked.

"Whose the doctor here?" He didn't let her answer. "Don't answer that."

"No, nothing's wrong with my muscle's."

"Then what's wrong?"

She was slightly taken aback by his question. "What, nothing."

"Girl, I'm your father. I know when something's bothering you..." He paused. "That and Ashley said you've been acting a little too calm lately."

She sighed a sad sigh before saying. "I just..." She paused. "Feel bad."

"About what?" Her father asked as he took a seat next to her.

"With the Reapers gone, I feel...useless." She said looking away from her father.

"Useless?" He repeated with an arched eyebrow.

"Useless." She said again. "It just feels like I've done everything that I was suppose to. Now I'm off adventuring again, and for what? To test an engine. The Reapers were the biggest threat to all life in the galaxy, and now their gone. So what am I suppose to do?"

"Live, Rem. You just have to live."

"But for what?"

"Let me finish." He commanded. "You remember all the stories I told you about my life. Well, you know that they were all true." He paused. "And after each one, after each obstacle I overcame, I thought that was it, that was the last thing I had to do. But it never was. There was always someone or something else waiting for me, and it grew harder each time."

"Yes, but what could be more a more difficult challenge then the Reapers?"

"You never know, is my point. No matter how big or strong the enemy get's, there will always be something stronger. This universe is full of impossible odds that's up to people like us to beat." He stood back up. "We fight, so no one else has to. But as long as we have something to come back to, it makes it all worth it."

She was silent for a minute while she contemplated his words. "But how did you do it? You had nothing for so long. What kept you going?"

"Hope." He said without giving it a thought. "I just hoped that things would get better, granted it got darker as time went. But it got better..." He paused. "Eventually."

"So what made it worth all your suffering?"

He smiled. "Now, I know that you know the answer to that." He was right, she knew that he was talking about her mother. "And don't forget that you helped to." He said with a laugh. "Just ask yourself Rem. What makes it all worth it for you?" She opened her mouth to speak, but he stopped her. "Go get some rest. Jenna will have dinner ready in a couple of hours."

"Right." She said mostly to her self.

OooooO

The remaining days aboard the SR3 went by fast. The crew were busy prepping the ship for its landing on the uncharted world. Shepard's father had given her a new set of armor, it wasn't N7 grade but it was comfortable, and that was a bonus.

The new Normandy shook as it entered the planets atmosphere, much more then the old Normandy did. Shepard made her way through the combat information center to meet the ground team at the airlock. The ground team consisted of Grunt, Ashley, her father, and herself.

"Ready to go?" Her father asked as she approached.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Good, cause were about to land." He reached out to hand her a Shuriken machine-pistol. "Here, you might need it."

She took the sub-machine gun and placed it on her right hip. It was then that she took note that her father was now wearing a red and black armor set. He had two Predator pistols on both of his hips, a Tempest sub-machine gun strapped to his left arm, and a Eviscerator shotgun on his right shoulder where an assault rifle would normally go. "Expecting trouble?"

"You never know." He said without looking at her. The ship shook once again with it's landing on the planets surface.

_{Landing successful.}_ Jenna announced over the ships intercom. _{Standby shore party.} _The airlock hissed as the pressure lock's released, and the hatched opened.

The light from the planets sun blinded her, but her vision returned quickly. Her father jumped out of the airlock onto the uncharted world, Grunt followed shortly after. Shepard decided to look around before jumping down. Wherever it is that they were, was covered with thick jungle and an ominous mist throughout the area. She noticed that Grunt was smelling the air. "Something doesn't smell right about this planet."

"I'll say." Vash said while reading something off his Omni-tool. "The oxygen readings readings are off the charts here."

"And that's bad?" Ashley asked, jumping out of the airlock.

"Well it makes the air breathable, that's for sure." He said, not taking his eyes off his Omni-tool. "The planet's surface is ninety-two percent rain forest. The large amounts of flora, cause oxygen levels to take up a majority of the atmosphere."

"I don't like where this is going." Rem said.

"The atmosphere's oxygen level is sitting at about sixty-two percent." Her father continued. "And as we all know, oxygen is a flammable gas. And due the large oxygen level's, a big enough explosion could ignite the atmosphere."

"Thus setting fire the planet, and killing everything and everyone on it." Rem finished for him.

"Yes exactly. But as long it doesn't reach over seventy-five percent, we should be." He turned to them with his smile. "Just be careful were you eject your heat sinks. I'm sure none you want to blow everything up." He then laughed as he walked east into the jungle.

Grunt looked at the women and shrugged, then followed Vash's path. "Was he joking?" Ashley asked nervously.

"With him, I can never tell." The Commander answered as she started walking.

Shepard and Ashley had to run to catch up to Vash, and the Krogan. Vash was staring at his Omni-tool as he walked, and was singing quietly as he went. "_Oh radio, tell me everything you know..._"

Ashley had always been a fan of his, ever since she was a child. She owned a few dozen of his music albums, and seen every movie vid that he was in. Meeting him now was like a dream come true. Despite his strange behavior.

The three watched as the entertainer started to skip while he sang. Grunt snorted and said. "I'll never understand you humans."

"Humans will never understand him." Rem said in contempt.

Vash stopped in his tracks and went quiet. "We're getting close." He said, pulling out what looked like a mineral marker.

"What's the marker for?" Rem asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Rem." He said, turning to face her. "I haven't been entirely truthful with you. We came here because this planet has a thick layer of palladium under the surface."

"Then while all the secrecy, illegal technology and guns?"

"Well..." He said with a smile. "You know me." He turned back around and started walking again.

"And here I thought that I'd be killing something." Said Grunt, shaking his head before heading forward.

A few minutes strolled by before Vash stopped in a clearing. "Okay!" He shouted back at them. "I found it."

"Yeah." Rem said sarcastic. "A huge patch of palladium." And when she reached the clearing her eyes widened at the sight. "Dad..." She said. "That's the..."

"Rem, I haven't been entirely truthful with you." Her father said again while planting the marker in the ground. "We actually came here to find the Normandy two's crash site."

OooooO

**That's it for now, thank you for your time.**


	6. Power

OooooO

Rem Shepard looked at her father in bewilderment. "You took us here to find the second Normandy?"

"It's here isn't it?" He answered looking up at the starship.

"You just told us that you were looking for platinum."

"Palladium, I said palladium. If your going to tell the story, then tell it right."

"Why didn't you just tell me from the start!" She said, her voice louder then she intended.

"Because, I just like to mess with you." He said smiling.

Ashley came back from looking the area over. "It's too quiet. The ship is dark."

"Well it did run on a mass drive." Grunt put in with slight annoyance.

"Despite that..." Vash said. "It should still have a running power source." He paused for a moment, staring at the foliage surrounding the crash site. "Rem and I will check the ship out. You two stay here."

Grunt rose to his full height to stand over the inventor. "I thought Shepard was in charge here. Not you movie star."

Vash smiled up at the Krogan. "Well seeing as I made your 'mom'..." He said the word mom with air quotations. "And taught her everything that she knows, I figured I deserve I little bit of respect from her little friends." He turned back to her. "Rem let's go." As her father walked to the ship, Grunt looked at her, and she just shrugged. Rem quickly joined her father at the Normandy two's airlock. He looked at her, his smile faded, and asked. "You ready?" She nodded. "Good." He released the emergency latch, which opened the airlock with ominous hiss.

It was dark inside, no lights at all. Even when she saw the wreckage of the original Normandy, there were some lights still active. She looked at her father with a worried look on her face. "Dad..."

He put his hand on her face to calm her like he did when she was a child. "Rem, it's okay. It'll be fine." She let him lead the way inside the ship. He pulled out an old fashioned micro flashlight, and shined it in the dark airlock. He stepped inside, and gave her his hand to help her inside. He went to the back door and found the emergency release. With the door now open, Vash stepped inside. He shined his flashlight around and said. "Okay, so far so good Re-..." His sentence was cut short when a large bullet flew through his head. The force of the impact toppled him over and sprayed his green blood over the walls. The whole thing startled her, but she regained her sense's when he started to roll back into the airlock. "Okay!" He exclaimed sitting up, the holes in his head bleeding green blood. "That hurt."

"Are you okay?" She found herself asking even though see knew the answer.

"You're kidding right?" He asked with an arched eyebrow. "If a bullet through the temple could kill me, then you would have never existed."

"Right." She said half relieved. "Did you see the shooter?"

"No, to dark. Senses didn't pick it up either." He pulled himself to his feet. "We need to turn the power back on. If I'm right, and I'm always right, I am me after all." Rem rolled her eyes. "Then there should be an override switch on the bridge."

"And you want us to get past a sniper to get to it." She said more then asked.

"Yeah I know, easy right." He sprinted into the hall, and dropped into a parkour roll as another sniper round went flew over his head. His rolled ended with in the bridge, safely out of the snipers sights. Her father flashed his flashlight at her, giving her the signal to come over.

Shepard nodded, took a deep breath and followed her fathers path. She was out of the game, she realized, as one of the sniper rounds hit her shoulder on her way over. "I'm out of shape." She said holding her shoulder plate.

"Coma's will do that to you." Her Father said as he looked for the power override. Another sniper round went off, this time it was closer to them. "It's getting close."

"You want me to take..." Her sentence was cut short when a pair of hands grabbed her hair and threw her down, bouncing her head off of the metal floor. The attacker grabbed her father by his shoulders, and threw him across the room into one of the co-pilot chairs. And when she got back to her feet, the attacker grabbed her and slammed her into the wall. She was punched in her stomach, hard, knocking the wind out of her.

A gunshot went off, shortly followed by the light's flickering on. And with the lights now on, Rem and the attacker caught eyes, and the sight of one another surprised them both. It was Garrus Vakarian. Her friend. Her paramour. Both looked at each other speechless. He looked terrible like he hadn't slept in weeks.

The Turian opened his mouth to say something, but that's when Vash ran up, made a short jump, grabbed Garrus' shoulders, and with his knees on the Turians shoulder blades, he threw himself backwards. The impact of the backstabber on the floor caused Garrus' body to jump half a foot in the air, leaving the Turian groaning in pain on the floor. "Remember kids." Vash said standing back up. "Turian armor is weaker in the shoulders."

"Dad!" Rem yelled in surprise.

"That was one of the crew, wasn't it?" He paused, then shrugged. "Oh, well. At least I didn't kill him."

OooooO

Feeling a bit bad that he attacked the Turian, Vash had volunteered to pick him up and pull him out of the starship. Once they were outside, Vash sat Garrus down against the hull of the ship. "You shouldn't have turned the power back on." Garrus said lightly.

"And here I thought that Turians liked the light." Vash said sarcastically.

"You don't understand." Garrus said trying to get to his feet. "They're attracted to power, to energy."

"What, fruit-bats?" Vash asked.

"Dad." Rem said. "This isn't the time for nonsense."

"There's always time for nonsense. It might save your life one day."

"Dad..." She paused. "We can't die."

"Oh, you know what I mean."

"Wait." Garrus interjected. "He's you father?" His voice rose. "I thought you were..."

"Thought she was an orphan." Vash interrupted. "I'll cut short for you. I'm her dad, she's been living under a persona, and despite my dancing prowess, she is completely terrible." He turned back to her. "Yes, I've seen you dance...You're awful. You get that from your mother." He turned back to the Turian who now had look of betrayal on his face. "Now I'm sure you have questions, but that will have to wait."

Rem spoke up. "You said something was attracted to energy?"

Garrus looked at her silently, then turned back to her father. "It started four days after we crashed. That's when the first crew member went missing. We waited days for him to turn up. I went out looking for him, and found nothing."

"Who was it?" Stampede asked.

Garrus shook his head. "I can't remember. It's been to long. But I do remember what happened next. We wouldn't see that crew member again for an entire year. That was the next incident. He stormed into our camp, but he wasn't the same. He was changed, corrupted, stronger, faster." He looked at the ground. "Before we new what was going on, he took down Vega, and dragged him off somewhere. This cycle repeated for weeks, until they took everyone."

"Everyone!" Rem exclaimed in shock.

"Well not exactly everyone. They took every able-bodied person we had. Tail and Joker are waiting for me in cargo hold."

"Well your story explains why they didn't take them, but what about you?"

"Rem, that's painfully obvious." Vash said matter-a-factually. "Just look at him. He obviously hasn't been sleeping, no doubt from paranoia. And his long separation from you probably had a negative affect on his mind. To put it plainly, he's exhausted. Both psychically and mentally. I wouldn't have taken him either."

"Dad, you knew about us?" Rem asked looking at her father in complete surprise.

"Hey." He said defensively. "You told your mother, and you know she can't keep a secret." He looked to Garrus. "Being able to see everything, everywhere, always, will do that to a person." His face straightened as he started looking around.

"Is he okay?" Garrus asked at Stampede's sudden mood change.

"He's thinking." Shepard answered. "Look Garrus, I'm sorry that I had to lie to you."

"We'll talk about it later." He said without looking at her. "When we're alone."

Vash's gaze finally rested on Ashley who was standing with Grunt at the tree line. And as an idea spread through his mind, his famous smile spread across his face. "Gear up kiddies." He said looking back at his daughter and the Turian. "I've got a plan."

OooooO


End file.
